Men's Basketball | October 10, 2018
Former USC basketball player and longtime college and NBA coach Fred "Tex" Winter, who refined and popularized the famed "Triangle Offense," died today (Oct. 10) in Manhattan, Kan. He was 96.
Winter was the Most Inspirational Player on the 1947 USC basketball team (the only year he lettered). He also was one of the nation's top pole vaulters when he lettered in track at Troy in 1946. He came to Troy from Huntington Park High and Compton College.
But it was as a coach where he had even greater success. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Kansas State (1948-51), helping the Wildcats to 3 league titles and the 1951 NCAA tourney runner-up spot.
He became Marquette's head coach the next 2 years (1952-53), then returned to Kansas State as its head coach for 15 seasons (1954-68), winning 8 league titles and getting to the NCAA Final Four twice. He was National Coach of the Year in 1958, then in 1959 his Wildcats finished No. 1 in the AP and UPI polls. It was while at Kansas State that he wrote a book in 1961 about the triple post offense.
He next was Washington's head coach for 3 seasons (1969-71) before moving into the NBA as the head coach of the San Diego/Houston Rockets for 2 seasons (1972-73).
He then returned to the college ranks as the head coach at Northwestern (1974-78) and Long Beach State (1979-83) and an assistant at LSU (1984-85). In all, he won 454 NCAA games.
He then became an assistant with the Chicago Bulls for 14 seasons (1986-99), helping them to 6 NBA championships, and with the Lakers for 10 years (2000-09), capturing 4 NBA titles.
He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003. He is also a member of the Pac-10 Hall of Honor, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame and the Compton Community College Athletics Hall of Fame.